Michigan

Lou Williams: Allen Iverson wants out of Detroit

One of Allen Iverson's old Philadelphia 76er buddies is quoted by a local radio show as saying he believes that Iverson does not want to be a Detroit Piston any longer.

March 13, RealGM: 76ers reserve Lou Williams has given validity to rumors that Allen Iverson is unhappy playing with the Pistons.

Williams, appearing on WMMR's Preston & Steve morning show in Philadelphia on Thursday, said his belief is that Iverson doesn't want to be in Detroit.

Even though Iverson has said all the right things, as far as his demotion to the bench, there has to be hard feelings on the way it's been handled in Detroit. Both by management, players and the local media. It seems as if there is a huge effort to blame Allen Iverson for all the Piston's woes this season.

"We have been extremely successful for a long time," said Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president. "But I also think along with that comes a little bit of predictability."

Iverson, Dumars said, will give the Pistons "a different dimension.

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Dumars knew the type of team he had, and he hired a coach with no head coaching experience at any level. Joe has been enamored with Allen Iverson for years and has actively tried to trade for him in the past.

The Piston players haven't helped the process much either, seeming to be unwilling to adjust any part of their games to adapt to having Iverson playing on "their team". One might have expected as much from their reactions after the trade.

The deal left the Detroit players shell-shocked.

"Do we like the trade?" Wallace asked. "Maybe not. Ain't no telling."

Hamilton, Billups's backcourt partner for six years, left without speaking to reporters. Prince sounded almost distraught.

"When you've had six straight years with somebody, you've got that bond and connection," Prince said. "And now all of a sudden it's gone.

If Iverson doesn't come back and play off the bench, he's hurting the team and the way fans will react towards him, but most of all he will be hurting himself. Iverson has reason to be angry, but sometimes you have to suck it up and just forget about the distractions and play basketball.

Saying that, shouldn't somebody ask Joe Dumars why he has allowed his head coach to allow this situation to fester? Iverson came to Detroit and has sacrificed in every facet of his game, has done everything asked of him. If he's the "square peg in a round hole", it's a failure of not only Iverson, but the head coach, the other players, and Joe Dumars. The Detroit media might want to stop pretending it's just something that happened naturally and blaming Iverson.

{Update: It looks as if the RealGM headline is a bit misleading. Matt Watson of DBB listened to the interview and transcribed what Williams said.}

Host: Does he like Detroit?
Lou Williams: I really haven't asked him about that because I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be there. My personal opinion, that's my disclaimer, but, you know.

So, I went and listened to the whole interview and Matt is right, Williams put in a disclaimer that it was his opinion and not from AI. I've cut the file down to the relevant portion here. Williams does say that he and Iverson are like brothers and talk all the time, so it's a little hard to believe that he has talked to Allen about his back and not the situation in Detroit, but people have to make up their own minds.